Inmate Interviews Episodes

Growing up near Chicago, Illinois, Anjel Ocegueda learned by age 13 that the environment around you can shape the course of your life. "The streets take a toll on you. Whether it's your environment, the people around you, or something that happens to your friends or family, you feel like you have to choose a side."As a sixth and seventh grader, Anjel excelled in school. He earned straight A's, made the honor roll, participated in sports, and envisioned a future built around higher education. H...

Before becoming a resident of one of Florida's most demanding correctional facilities, prison pen pal Miguel Cordero was immersed in the world of video games, logging countless hours on various consoles. However, following his arrest and the onset of a daunting 20-year sentence, he found himself grappling with intense emotions and a fiery temper. His notorious anger earned him the moniker "Psycho" among his fellow inmates -- a title that ultimately helped fuel his transformation.During a gruel...

Jason Evick is currently serving time at the Toledo Correctional Institution in Ohio for a violent crime. In Ohio and many other states, inmates have access to an app called GettingOut, which allows them to receive emails directly on their prison tablets. While this technology can significantly enhance communication with pen pals outside, it also carries potential risks.When we think about prison inmates and catfishing, the typical assumption is that the inmate is the one deceiving others—fabr...

In the 1990s, DeWayne Lee Harris was responsible for the tragic deaths of multiple women, earning infamy in the Seattle, Washington area under chilling monikers such as Chilly Willy, The Seattle Jungle Killer, and The Seattle Shoelace Slasher. His heinous acts included tying up victims like Denise Marie Harris and Antoinette Jones with their own shoelaces, ultimately strangling them with a belt. His third known victim, Olivia Smith, met a similarly grim fate, being stabbed to death. Disturbingly...

Jason Kurtz is a PenPals.Buzz member who lives and loves fitness. He remembers his first workout at the age of 11; since then, he never looked back. Over the past 30+ years, Jason has managed over 15 gyms, has worked for companies that sell fitness equipment, and even got arrested and sent to prison due to his involvement with a supplement he encountered during his fitness journey. In this episode, Jason Kurtz explains the important connection between a healthy body and a healthy mind, and share...

Jacobi Thornsberry’s journey began in the vibrant streets of New Orleans, Louisiana. Seeking an escape from the bustling chaos of the city, he made the leap to Oregon. However, fate had other plans, and within three years, he found himself behind bars in an Oregon prison. Loneliness settled in, and the thought of finding a meaningful connection crossed his mind. He considered WriteAPrisoner.com as a way to meet that special someone. But then there was the enigmatic "Baby Gua," a mysterious figur...

Changing your name while incarcerated is impossible in some states, and quite easy in others. There are countless reasons why someone behind bars might feel the need to legally reinvent themselves. In this episode, we’ll explore the inspiring story of Savannah Turner, formerly Gena, an incarcerated member of PenPals.Buzz. Currently incarcerated for identity theft, Savannah has moved beyond a troubled past filled with poor choices and substance abuse. Today, she seeks to shed her old name and emb...

Prison relationships can seem like a fairytale love story. Take Anthony Cloud, for instance. A few years ago, he met the love of his life, Melissa on PenPals.Buzz. They referred to each other as husband and wife. After all, Melissa told him she was pregnant with his twins. According to Anthony, she had the ultrasound pictures to prove it. Having grown up in foster care, he never had a family who loved him. When he met Melissa, all of his dreams came true. But shortly thereafter, Anthony realized...

Britney Gulley is his legal name, but this female to male transgender inmate is better known as Xandan. He's a political prisoner, activist, and published writer. Xandan Gulley enjoys football, reading, astrology, Greek mythology, women’s basketball, dogs, and listening to NPR. One minuscule tranquility for Xandan is being able to watch the sunrise and sunset every day, out his small window in the 6X9 solitary cell (where he has been a victim of prolonged solitary confinement for over 14 years)....

Richard Strong was convicted of First-Degree Murder for the 2011 shooting of Ygnacio Bermudez, Jr., on the streets of Lansing, Michigan. Rick, who was sentenced to Life without Parole, claims he was wrongfully convicted of the murder and has polygraph test results to prove it. He admitted, however, that his past history of selling drugs and hanging around the wrong people contributed to his downfall, and he knew he "needed to just change everything." It was then that he made a conscious decision...

In 1993, Marc Rosemond was convicted of 3 counts of murder and sentenced to Life in prison. Now, 33 years later, he calls the Prison Pen Pal Podcast from his cell at the Shawangunk Correctional Facility in Wallkill, New York. Desperate to find answers about why he committed such horrible crimes, Marc Rosemond (inmate #93A1985) shares how art, poetry, and music helped him work through his childhood trauma, find clarity, and transform his life into one of positivity and resiliency. In addition to ...

Thanksgiving in prison is a plate full of mixed emotions. On one hand, there's excitement with the special holiday meal (often including real turkey, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie). It's a time for cellmates and friends to get together and create something unique and delcious, like Jovan Stewart's Famous Banana Pudding, Rachell House's Enchilada Bowls, or Angelina Omara's Vanilla Pancakes. But the Holiday also serves as a painful reminder of what these individuals don't have -- the chance to ...

When Ryan Rice was growing up in Illinois, his parents let him do anything he wanted. Spoiled might be the word that comes to mind. The "freedom" he was granted as a young child ultimately sculpted him into a man with no direction, quitting most of the things he set his mind to...until, that is, he was sentenced to 35 years in a Dixon, Illinois prison. That's when things had to change. Tired of "going nowhere fast," Rice, a prison pen pal and member of PenPals.Buzz, shares why he made an "execut...

As we celebrate Halloween today, we thought we'd invite inmates around the USA to join in on the fun, eat some candy, and share their traditions both in and out of prison. We wondered if they watch scary movies from the prison dayroom, if they make homemade goodies or buy homemade candy from other inmates, or even if they give candy away to trick-or-treating cellmates. So we asked male and female prison inmates to call PenPals.Buzz and share their stories on this extra spooky and fun bonus episode.First, we talk to PenPals.Buzz member and friend, Jason Kurtz, about his myriad Halloween experiences and traditions, and what he does from inside the prison walls to celebrate and enjoy the spirit of the holiday. Jason also shares some true real-life scary stories from his book, Secret Tales of the Supernatural, available now on Amazon.Then, Cheyenne Smith and Laura Wickham, both from a Federal Correctional Institution in Tallahassee, Florida, talk to Big Steve about their Halloween…

Over 25 years ago, just a few days after the turn of the millennium and the Y2K madness, Marvin Dearing was arrested, interrogated, and ultimately convicted of murder. But did he do it? New DNA evidence suggests not, but the judge is unwilling to revisit the case. Mr. Dearing, a member of PenPals.Buzz, now in his early 50s, has spent over a quarter-century (and more than half of his life) locked up in Ohio. He hopes that someone, somewhere -- maybe even Kim Kardashian -- will take another look a...

Jimmy Tench, convicted of murdering his mother, Mary Tench, and sentenced to Death Row in Ohio, recently appeared on Evil Lives Here: The Killer Speaks (Season 2, Episode 4: He Murdered My Mother). Now, Jimmy (or James Tench, as he's listed in the Ohio DOC) speaks to us from a telephone in his prison cell. During the interview, he goes into more depth about how he was portrayed on Evil Lives Here and mentions several topics which weren't discussed on the TV show, such as his negative experiences with his attorneys, what positive things he has gained from his time on Death Row, and what it was like growing up with what he says was an abusive, alcoholic father.Even though there were 1,000 pieces of evidence used against him at the trial, including Mary Tench's blood on the shoes found in his bedroom, and a video of him buying duct tape just before the murder, Jimmy proclaims his innocence, and suggests that he knows who the real killer was. We ask him what he'd like to say to the ki…

St. Peter, Minnesota boasts a plethora of sights: a beautiful arboretum, a Veteran's Memorial, the Paddlefish Brewing Company (with 12 homemade beers on tap) and last but not least, the prison artist known as Alfson. This artist, whose real name is Benjamin Alverson, can't really be considered a prison artist, as he is technically not in prison. He's been held captive in a Civil Commitment Facility (a prison disguised as a mental health hospital to get around due process laws) in St. Peter, for well over a decade. This place is a real dark stain on the community, yet Alfson copes with his captivity with incredible grace and a positive spirit. In this episode, we interview Benjamin Alverson by telephone and dig deep into his life -- his childhood, his upbringing, his family, his spirituality, his love of pets, his hobbies, and of course his artwork. What does he create? How does he create it? What is he allowed (or not allowed to buy)? Is he allowed to sell his pieces? Alfson is a PenP…

When most people hear that someone has proactively decided to write, befriend, or even date a prison inmate, they think it's weird, bizarre, or unhealthy. So many people, not accustomed to the prison pen pal world, will ask, "Why would you write an inmate? Why not find a friend (or partner) who ISN'T incarcerated?" After a lot of thinking and a little research, we now know the answer: Connection. Or a complete lack of connection, as the case may be. When men and women feel disconnected from one another in the free world (thanks in large part to technology) they turn to someone who may be more inclined to listen, more inclined to pay attention -- a captive audience, so to speak. We discuss some of the research that has helped lead us to this conclusion. We learn about how people are spending much less time out of the house, and how technology is the biggest problem in so many marriages today. People don't feel heard. Many people don't even know how to connect verbally anymore. This epi…

62-year-old Mark Huber is serving a lengthy sentence in Idaho for sex crimes he claims he didn't commit. "I am not freaking guilty," he loudly proclaims early on in this episode. According to Huber, the DNA used to convict him belonged to a Hispanic female. Then, we head slightly northwest to Aberdeen, Washington, where PenPals.Buzz member Rich Parenteau, convicted of murdering his mother and stepfather with an axe, describes in detail how he was framed by the CIA. Both men provide a wealth of evidence to support their claims. But are either of them telling the truth? You be the judge.

This holiday season, we celebrate myriad lifelong friendships and relationships which we have helped facilitate between incarcerated individuals and their free-world pen pals. In 2024 alone, PenPals.Buzz helped generate hundreds of long-term friendships and relationships, several engagements, and at least three marriages! On this final episode of the year, we interview Patrick and Melissa Cloud, who met right here on PenPals.Buzz. Learn about their journey and discover how a nurse from South Dakota found happiness with a prison inmate in Washington state. We wish them all the best for 2025 and beyond.Later in the episode, we talk with PenPals.Buzz member Zachary (Zac) Lopez. Zac, a 24-year-old Christian incarcerated in Idaho, shares with us what Christmas is like in prison. Learn about how the holiday affects prisoners' emotions in both good and bad ways. Hear what kind of special meal awaits them in the chow hall. And learn about holidays in Zac's unit bring people together around …

In 2011, Will Leverett stabbed 54-year-old Melissa Millan as she jogged alone at night on a trail in Simsbury, Connecticut. The case went unsolved for over four years. Overcome with guilt and shame, Will confessed his crime, first to a good female friend of his, and then to some members of his church. Soon after, they walked with him to the police station, providing moral support as he confessed to the crime. Will, now a member of PenPals.Buzz, hopes to meet an understanding and open-minded pen pal who would be willing to write him letters and emails. He loves animals, the outdoors, and hopes to travel one day, after completing his 35-year sentence. Later in the episode, we chat with Tennessee inmate Luis Paz. Luis, who has written blogs for PenPals.Buzz, explains why giving real support to an inmate has nothing to do with money. He also talks about ways to make genuine connections with your pen pal. Spoiler alert -- it doesn't involve love letters or romance. He reminds us a…

Books such as The Best Resource Directory for Prisoners and Inmate Shopper list thousands of resources for prison and jail inmates. Companies around the USA offer services including online research, book and magazine sales, email forwarding, gift purchasing, printing photos of beautiful women, pen pals, blogs for inmates, discount phone calls, correspondence college courses, and much more. But which ones are reliable, and which ones should be avoided? In this podcast episode, we interview Illinois inmate, Daniel Patrykus. Daniel's blog, The Best Inmate Service Companies, details some of his go-to companies for inmate services. He talks with us in depth about some of these companies, and why he likes to use them (or not use some of them). Then, we talk with Gary L. Smith, the founder of Felon's Friend, a company that strives to do whatever it takes (as long as it's legal) to help inmates. Finally, we chat with new PenPals.Buzz member, James Hartfield, about his favorite companie…

Is your prison pen pal genuine, or could he or she be manipulating you for money and commissary? This week, we're joined by Chris from Colorado. Now retired, Chris worked inside of a correctional facility for over 17 years and has some stories to share. You may or may not agree with his opinions about inmates (or offenders as he calls them) but his cautionary tale may prove beneficial to some. Later in the show, we chat with two inmates (and members of PenPals.Buzz). Get to know Terry Spencer from Umatilla, Oregon, and Kristopher Douglas from Tucson, Arizona. Learn more about them at https://penpals.buzz

Everywhere you go, everywhere you look, you'll see and hear people asserting that all inmates are scum, that inmates deserve to rot and die in prison. Big Steve disagrees, reasoning that with 2.3 million incarcerated men and women in America, it's impossible to put them all into a tiny little box labeled "SCUM". While some inmates (like the ones depicted in movies) have committed heinous crimes and may be where they need to be, our mission is to share with the world some more uplifting stories of prison inmates. Redemption is possible. Thousands, just like our guest on this week's episode, have worked tirelessly to change their lives for the better. When we interview Daniel Morris, you won't hear Hannibal Lecter. You won't hear Charles Manson. You'll hear a human being who admits he made some terrible choices in life, but who has worked unbelievably hard to improve himself both mentally and physically. You'll meet a guy who loves the stock market, loves octopuses, loves his daughter, …